Guess I got a few more points to hit on the main quest first - wasn't sure how long the actual main quest is - partway through lvl 19 now only just now on maybe the 4th portion of the main quest.

Just remember, when you are done with the main quest, you are done with the game.

apparently this isn't like Oblivion, where you can keep exploring after the main quest. i have done nothing so far (main) other than to to the bar in Megaton.

Sure, there was but that is gone since the first thing I did was run upstairs to sleep. Next thing I know, I turned around and he was just standing there in my way.

I am at 64 hours now. I have completed half of the main quests and a handful of the sidequests. I hit the level cap at 20, but I heard that they are raising it to 30 in a patch that is coming soon.

Thats cool, but are they bringing out DLC soon as well? 10 more levels seems like a lot of levels for what is left in the game. I felt 22-25 would have been enough. They did say on xbox that DLC would be here quicker then anyone would have thought.

For anyone who has finished the entire main quest in the game... can you tell me roughly how far I am?

SomethingMore - I'm pretty sure that's a sidequest.

Well, I'm at 50+ hrs, just hit lvl 20 (although 21 does show up on the end of the bar - for future use I guess ;p), and finally made it inside the citadel. (not sure how many "segments" of the main quest are after this one) - just want to make sure I don't prematurely finish, although I expect that the last portion will probably be somewhat self-evident.

Am now capable - with chems - of hitting a 100/VH lock or computer. Finally. Been keeping track of a few that I can go back and tackle now. I also picked up the lvl 20 perk explorer - so I have a few things to keep my eyes open for - although at least one of the bobbleheads is not at a marked map space. Currently at either 7 or 8 myself.

I did figure out who the guy was in Megaton for a party member, but just used the wrong dialog on him the first time. To be honest - here, unlike the first two games, I'm not really feeling the need to drag a couple other guys around, who will more than likely get in my way or die pretty early on. I survived Stealing Liberty with that one girl, but to be honest, it used up a lot of my stims keeping her alive - it's easier to just worry about myself for the moment. Guess it could get harder later.

BTW, those mini-nukes really don't have much splash damage - esp compared to a rocket.

it might also be fun to post your end-game stats - not skills, but folks killed, quests complete, karma, etc. Probably be done with my first game by the end of this week or the weekend.

Nope.
It's shortly after the part that you're at.
Unless I managed to get onto a major sidequest...

It is a quest that does not have to be done to cont. the main quest, so in that sense it is sort of a side quest. There are other ways to get the main quest going, and you can take this quest outside the main quest anytime you want.

I cleared it out because it was listed as one of three locations listed as a possible stockpile of key items for a different quest - guess I'll revisit it sooner or later - don't expect much of a challenge from a bunch of corpses though ;p

Quick question - Do computers that you failed to hack reset themselves? The first few I had no idea what I was doing and I forgot to save before attempting to hack them.

I don't know if the PCs ever reboot, but the trick is to try 3 times, back out and try 3 more, then you don't get locked out.

My question is, each attempt to the PC, is it the same password? Sometimes is seems like I get 3 of 7, the next 1 of 7 for a similar word.

Question: Bloody Mess perk: Is it worth it? I am going shooter/sniper type, but a 5% increase in damage seems small. I mean if my gun had 100 damage, then this would make it 105. Not a huge leap. It there something else in the LVL 6 perks that would be better? I already have gun slinger.

I think Bloody Mess is a great perk. I love to use it with the Fisto and punch the enemies into Oblivion. You can literally knock arms and legs of with a good punch or two.

I think I'm at level 14 but I've completed next to nothing on the main quest. Really... I've just been walking all over trying to explore as much of the map as possible. I figured I'd throw in a few of my thoughts up to this point.

A few people mentioned they felt cheated by the perk for the mysterious stranger. I couldn't disagree more. I love the guy. Maybe it's b/c I like to use my rifles and I fight enemies from a further distance away, but I think I've seen him 13 or 14 times already and I've only had him for a few levels. So my vote is that the perk is well worth it. There's nothing better than getting into a fight where you're about to lose some serious HP and then he pops up in the middle of the fight to save your ass.

I too sometimes have a hard time finding the corpse after a fight. Especially when I stumble upon a group of enemies I wasn't expecting and most of the fight involves me running backwards and ducking/weaving while shooting at them. By the time the fights over it can be tough to figure out where you killed the first guy. But I do like that you only need to find a piece of the enemy to search their body and take everything they had. This really is a nice element that I think makes the game that much easier to enjoy. After all, sometimes I can only find an arm or a head after my battle with them.

Regarding the Bloody Mess Perk... I don't know if it's worth it, but it never seems to get old. Also, I think I read somewhere that at some point late in the game (maybe level 18 or 20) you can acquire a perk that lets you rehack locked computers.

Last night I sniped a guy with a hidden, critical headshot (no bloody mess) and pieces flew everywhere.

When I went up to check the gear, there was a landmine, so I quickly hit A, and it brought me into "search dead guy". Exicted that and had my legs blown off.

Looking at the mine as I lay there crippled, I see a hunk of meat on the mine, from the guy I shot!

The perk to re-hack the computers only lets you try one more time. Since you can try four guesses before it's locked, I usually stop at three, and then try again. It does change the password, but you get it eventually. Waste of a perk, IMO.

Bloody mess is cool because of the additional damage they added to it. The previous Fallout games, it was just something to have because you liked gore

Not sure. I heard the DLC would be like the Oblivion DLC, meaning a new "expansion pack" type DLC that would last a good 15-20 hours if you breezed through it.

Anyone find the White House yet? I've been exploring like crazy and cant find it. Or is it just nuked beyond recognition?

^^
someone on gamestop.com says the following...

I tried too. It is a map marker but there's nothing there and you get about +5rps when you're close. I think we're suppose to assume that it was nuked.

I thought I saw it, and you can't get to it, just look through the gate.

Man, I'm starting to really love this game. The first few hours were going ho-hum, but in the last 5 hours or so it's really hooked me in. I think I might place it above Oblivion, for me.

Computer hacking:

My take on it:

I start with a random word that looks vaguely interesting - or more likely one that seems to share characteristics or letters with at least one other word out of the list.

Now the number of words available to choose from and their length depends on both the difficulty level of the hack and your science skill. Higher skill and/or lower hack requirement = fewer, less complex words.

I choose one, go with it and see where it gets me. When I get to 3 tries, I've hopefully got at least 3 letters in common. Note, the description of how letters work is kinda confusing in the game and in the manual - as I can tell, it's a measure of how many of the correct letter are in the correct location - so:

COOLING
Would be 4/7 correct and
COOTIES
would be 6/7 correct if the real word was
COOKIES

If however, I'm a 3 down, 1 left - even if I'm 98% certain, it's not worth taking that chance most of the time.

Now I look for a series of closed brackets - you can't always tell which will do which. On nearly every single hack (although I think the number present also depends on skill/difficulty), there will be one set of brackets that will literally reset your count to 4. This one isn't always present though. There will also normally be at least 1, sometimes as many as 4 or 5 that will each erase one of the dud words - sometimes one you've already chosen, sometimes one that you haven't chosen yet - and replace it with "......"

Just move the cursor around and you should find them. Sometimes you'll need to move sideways from one to the other - they might be immediately next to each other like [] or () or {} or , but very often they'll be spread out with a few other random figures (never letters) in between them. If something highlights and it's not a real word, it's either a dud remover or a test-count resetter.

If I've reset my count or found all the duds and I still can't figure it out, THEN I'll cancel out and restart - resetting all words and dud removing characters.

Putting on your science jumpsuit/labsuit and popping a mentats before hacking never hurts either - although it does tend to get you addicted from time to time.

Don't they show it in advertisements?

Pop quiz jon,

What's the name of that building?